July 22, 2003
AUSTRALIAN BOLSHEVIK COLLECTIVE DENIES BOLSHEVISM
The ABC isn’t biased, according to an investigation of the ABC by the ABC:
The ABC today said it upheld two of the government's complaints about its war coverage, but denied it was evidence of bias.
The ABC today handed Communications Minister Richard Alston its response to his complaint of alleged bias about the Iraq war coverage.
ABC managing director Russell Balding today said the national broadcaster's Complaints Review Executive (CRE) upheld two of the minister's 68 complaints.
A privatised ABC could be as biased as it likes, with no government complaints at all. I’m surprised that ABC types don’t urge that the broadcaster be sold.
Posted by Tim Blair at July 22, 2003 03:36 AMTim---Can you tell us the name and background of the members of the ABC's "Complaint Review Executive". It appears to me to be quite extraordinary that the Complaints of a Minister can be dismissed by an internal Executive body of the organisation against whom the complaints are made.
Posted by: Geoff at July 22, 2003 at 11:40 AMSo, Timbo, they still haven't given you your show back then?
You can throw as many tanties as you want, but I don't think it'll make much difference at this point.
And while we're on the topic of good (and bad) journalism - how many corrections and/or apologies to your column has the Bulletin run so far?
Posted by: Bon Scott at July 22, 2003 at 12:13 PMWho would buy it? You would insist on vacant possession.
A 24 hour wrestling channel could be a goer, and would probably lift the intellectual level of the broadcaster if you look at "MDA" etc.
Everyone agrees the ABC should be privatised, but the problem is that most of its employees are so immune to criticism that they couldn't function in a free market. And as Habib Bickford says, who the hell would buy it? The best bet would be to sell off all licences and assets and throw the rest to the wind. The ABC is now run by a bunch of fuckwits.
Posted by: Preston Whip at July 22, 2003 at 01:53 PMHey Bon,
Under the terms of the Chumpski/BinLiner Pact(2001):Clause no.1(a) -All left wing intellectual's must insert their heads in Saddam Hussain's anus for one hour per day. It is called the 'happy hour'.
Your time up must be over by now it's been months since you lost the war.
An easy way you can tell if a person is a left-wing intellectual is by their distinctive brown shirts.
Once very fashionable amoung Europeans in the 1930's, these easily lifted shirts have made a widespread comeback.
Hey Bon Scott, you dead vomit-drinking shirt lifter: Go and have a root, mate. You need it. Either that or cough up for the penis enlargement surgery. Fuck, you're that kid all of us avoided at primary school: the one that smelled funny, ate the hard stuff he picked out of his nose, made sly remarks about any projects that didn't quite work out, and dobbed people in when he invariably got thumped. Like all fucktard arsewipes, you grew up into the guy who makes snide remarks behind people's backs, criticises everything but never actually lifts a fucking finger (except to insert it into his own arse), and thinks he's smarter than Professor Julius Sumner Miller. Mate, if I had a dollar for every time a whining prick like you actually did something I'd be fucking broke. I've worked all over the world and you're a fucking universal given: gutless, half-educated, pretentious and lazy. If you work in some half-arsed artsy establishment, then you're probably pretty safe, but every prick like you that surfaces anywhere else is usually flogged in the car park before they resign and find some other place to fuck over with their constant whining and back stabbing. Your posts remind me why every communard jerk I've ever known has never made it beyond some government sponsored sinecure or grant-fed slack-as-shit job. Keep on posting, you small dicked wonder, keep on with the witty retorts, and keep popping your head out of your arse to sniff the wind. Guys like you make everything I am, do and have so much tastier. You, my friend, are no more than the dog shit we occasionally need to step in to remind us that most of lives are dog shitless. Mate, my life is Bon Scottless, and from where I’m standing I’m one happy little fucker because of it.
Posted by: Bon Scotties at July 22, 2003 at 03:48 PMgo read the complaints and their response (there's a link from the ABC news website). i think you'll find that the review was pretty fair - Alston's complaints were grossly misrepresentative, taking things out of context almost as a matter of policy. read it (it's 130 pages, which includes the full text of the complaint, as well as the response, including lengthy quotes etc).
and to preston whip - no, "everyone" does not agree that the ABC should be privatised. i, for one, don't, and i'm sure many people more important than myself would agree. this is the sort of massive generalisation that we can see in the Alston complaint list.
Posted by: jb at July 22, 2003 at 04:53 PMjb:
I'm more important than you and I disagree, so wake up and smell the flowers dough boy. Everyone does agree that the ABC should be privatised.
Posted by: Preston Whip at July 22, 2003 at 04:56 PMDowm there in the Winter Palace on Harris Street, they don't need privatisation, they need a people's revolution, to storm the barricades and burn down the fortress of intellectual privilege and left-wing snobbery. Aux arms citoyens!
Posted by: Rob at July 22, 2003 at 06:20 PMWho's everyone Preston?
All those fucking whiney right wingers who shit their pants at the prospect that a news outlet may actually analyse what our stupid right wing fucking government is doing?
Craig:
By everyone, Craig, I mean everyone with more than lint for brains.
And yes, you're right, right wingers lose control of their bowels just thinking about a news outlet that analyses what the Australian government is doing. When you say news outlet, you're referring to the Australian Bolshie Collective, aren't you? I hope you don't mean organs like the Green Left Wankery or something as equally childish. I don't suppose it matters. If you think tax payers should pay for a news outlet that panders to your world view, that the government has the right to set prices, determine wage levels and oversee distribution, then I guess you really are truly beyond my classification of everyone. And that means you have lint for brains.
And now, if you excuse me, I have to evacuate my bowels; I see Aunty is analysing something.
Posted by: Preston Whip at July 22, 2003 at 07:53 PMI guess the next step would be for someone to analyse the ABC's response.
Posted by: Andjam at July 22, 2003 at 09:03 PM"And yes, you're right, right wingers lose control of their bowels just thinking about a news outlet that analyses what the Australian government is doing."
I do think it's the angle of the analysis, not to mention theremarkable consistency of the results of most state-funded broadcasters that tend to give some of us righties occational stomach trouble. Naturally, us Swedes have a lubbely state-controlled broadcaster (SVT) that provides us with all the best lefty bias the world's highest taxes can provide.
As for you Whip, you'd like it better here - I hear they are just starting up a 24/7 digital Chomsky network. Though the beer is real expensive here, and the weather sucks most of the year, so you might want to consider your move carefully. Still, we do have more (naturally) blonde girls - that's actually true. Your choice.
Regards / GulGnu
-Stabil som fan!
Posted by: GulGnu at July 22, 2003 at 10:17 PMAlston should spend more time fixing the mess he made of digital broadcasting rather than going on about the lefty club at the ABC. It's a given.
Here's a cartoon from Bruce Petty, a self-confessed died-in-the-wool lefty, way back in the 70s, commenting on ABC bias. Nothing's changed since.
We all know the rules. So what if they're unreconstructed lefties? Like JJJ radio station. Naive politics maybe, but interesting new music, which I don't think you'd get from conservatives.
Posted by: The at July 23, 2003 at 08:38 AMABC producer: Bias, Bias ? Right, did anyone omit to run our communard line in any segment? No. Whew, that's a relief.
Posted by: d at July 23, 2003 at 09:51 AMDear GulGnu, thanks for your advice. A 24/7 Chumpski network is enough to have me booking a ticket today. With regard to natural blondes: yes, I'm sure there are more natural blondes in Sweden than here (I live in Hong Kong). Personally, I'm a fan of natural black, but hey, I can live with blonde.
Posted by: Preston Whip at July 23, 2003 at 12:17 PMpreston - well, for starters, even though you may be more important than me (i can't say, obviously), you are still one person as i am. since i disagree, that means not everyone does agree.
your next clause is that you mean "everyone with more than lint for brains". i must defend myself here. i have more than lint for brains. but the wider point here, of course, is your (typically right-wing) assumption that only people who agree with your ideology count as intelligent, a view which could be described as elitist.
Posted by: jb at July 24, 2003 at 10:56 AM